Russia’s Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation has recently published a documentary containing previously classified footage of the 1961 test of the Tsar Bomba nuclear bomb at Novaya Zemlya.
The footage is part of a documentary published to mark 75 years of Russia’s nuclear industry.
Officially known as RDS-220, and later nicknamed the Tsar Bomba (emperor bomb in English), the bomb is the scariest thermonuclear device ever tested. At 50 megatons, the yield of the Tsar Bomba dwarfs that of Castle Bravo, which, at 15 megatons, was the largest one conducted by the US.
The documentary shows the entire test procedure, from painting the modified Tu-95 aircraft with special reflective paint, through deploying the 27-ton bomb with the help of a one-ton parachute, to multiple shots of the mushroom cloud that formed following the explosion.
According to the Atomic Heritage Foundation, the heat from the detonation was capable of causing third-degree burns at a distance of 62 miles while the shock wave was felt 430 miles away. The detonation also caused the Tu-95 to drop half a mile in altitude before it righted itself.
